An earlier neck brace has been developed by one of the inventors of the present invention and is disclosed in International Patent Application No. PCT/ZA2004/000148, published as WO 2005/051251, the contents of which is included herein in its entirety, by reference. This earlier neck brace offers protection to the neck and upper cervical spine, when worn in conjunction with a helmet.
However, tests showed that the protection offered by this earlier neck brace during very rapid decelerations, such as those found in accidents during motor sports, the interaction between the lower parts of the helmet and the brace could still be improved. This was due to a number of reasons.
The first shortfall in the earlier brace was that the helmet and head were found to travel too far forward relative to the brace, causing the helmet to travel past the forward end of the brace and causing strain on the upper cervical spine as the helmet rotated forward.
The second shortfall in the earlier brace was that shoulder straps that were used to keep the brace in position on the wearer's chest, slid off the brace.
What complicates addressing these shortfalls, is that it is important for the sake of comfort (and accordingly for wearer compliance) to prevent restricting movement of the wearer's head as far as possible during normal use of the brace. Further, the helmet should be capable of being fitted after the brace, both for the sake of convenience in allowing a wearer to prepare his brace, seatbelts and the like before fitting his helmet and also because a brace that could fit snugly enough, would be difficult and/or cumbersome to put on at the same time as the helmet.
The present invention seeks to provide a neck brace that addresses these shortfalls and improves in a number of other respects on the prior neck brace of International Patent Application No. PCT/ZA2004/000148.